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David Moyes has raised the bar at West Ham, hence the imminent new contract, but with it comes greater expectations.
And a point at home to Brighton, exhausted or not, was not enough for some and some boos greeted the final whistle.
They had seen their team finish a clear second behind Brighton, missing the chance to make it a perfect Christmas period by increasing the gap between themselves and the Seagulls and also closing the gap between the top four.
And while circumstances may not have given much benefit of the doubt in some sections of the London Stadium, there was mitigation for Moyes.
West Ham were massively weakened, losing two of their best players, Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta, their two starting centre-backs, Nayef Aguerd and Kurt Zouma, and preferred right-back Vladimir Coufal.
West Ham and Brighton played out a goalless draw on Tuesday night at the London Stadium.
Despite missing several opportunities, Brighton recorded their first clean sheet of the season.
Pascal Gross had three clear chances during the match but could not beat Alphonse Areola
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Kudus and Aguerd were missing due to AFCON duties with Ghana and Morocco respectively, and FIFA rules stated that the players would be released for the tournament from January 1.
The absences of Kudus (certainly an injury doubt for this one) and Paqueta in particular impacted West Ham significantly going forward.
Moyes reflected: ‘Couldn’t we have played on January 1 to allow our African players to play? That is something that is not correct.
‘They (Kudus and Paqueta) are fantastic footballers and we need them. “The other players need them too.”
And, despite the flat end to the festive period, Moyes highlighted the gifts already delivered during Christmas at his side.
“We’ve had a brilliant Christmas in terms of the points situation,” he said. “I’m delighted to have won three and drawn one, including Arsenal, Manchester United and Brighton, who are a fantastic team.” From one point of view, we have done very well.”
A long-awaited clean sheet was somewhat rescued from this low-key, low-quality affair (perhaps another reason for the full-time reaction) for Brighton, ending a club-record 23 league game wait by one for the De Zerbi team.
But if that suggests New Year, new Brighton, their failures in front of goal were a familiar story for De Zerbi, who was on his knees later on after another chance slipped away.
He has lamented the games his Brighton team have dominated but failed to win of late, at one point claiming that a great team and manager would have turned those performances into victories. Add this one to the list.
“Scoring a goal (was what we lacked), but we kept a clean sheet,” he said.
“We deserved to win but we made some mistakes in the last pass, the shot, the cross, the assist.”
However, he was happy with the way his team nullified West Ham’s counter-attacking threat, reduced by their key absences.
In the return match at the Amex in August, Brighton dominated but were beaten by a counter-attacking masterclass from Moyes’ side.
This time Brighton avoided a repeat.
David Moyes’ team extended their unbeaten run to three games in a row after beating Arsenal and Man United.
Jarrod Bowen looked dangerous throughout the first half, testing Jason Steele in goal.
Danny Welbeck also had the opportunity to put the visitors ahead during the match.
Soucek (left), who signed a new contract with the club this week, had the best chance of the game but his shot went wide of the net.
The first half was tight, with Jason Steele making two impressive saves to deny Jarrod Bowen (who was ultimately offside) and James Ward-Prowse before his efforts were equalized by Alphonse Areola, who made a double save to prevent the efforts of Danny Welbeck. and Jack Hinshelwood.
There were difficult situations towards the end of the half for both teams before Soucek missed West Ham’s best chance of the game in the second, with a deflected shot from close range.
But that was just a brief respite amid an avalanche of opportunities for Brighton.
His calls for a penalty and Emerson’s handball were ignored, but followed by a Welbeck effort parried away by Areola.
Joao Pedro couldn’t finish his hard work after dribbling and feinting past three West Ham defenders, but fired straight at Areola.
In came Evan Ferguson, who was next to approach Brighton.
Firstly, after creating some space with some clever footwork before shooting wide and secondly, with a clever backheel attempt which was blocked by the alert Angelo Ogbonna.
Pascal Gross and Jakob Moder were next to waste opportunities from close range before Adam Lallana also extended Areola, who did his best to give resilient West Ham a point.
Moyes added: “This was the first night where we looked jaded and tired. I wanted to be better, for us to play better, but maybe we just lacked quality.”